By Lisa Keen
Keen News Service
Several political pundits this week say the 2008 Republican National Convention launched a second "cultural war," but it is unclear, as yet, just how much a target the LGBT community will be this time around.
Gays were a considerable focus of the first "cultural war." It was launched at the Republican convention in 1992, when commentator Pat Buchanan derided the Democratic National Convention as the "greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history." He characterized a gay speaker at the Democratic podium as a "militant leader of the homosexual rights movement," and he proffered that the presidential election amounted to a "cultural war."
Fast-forward 16 years to last week in St. Paul, Minn., and the nation heard wild applause for the touting of family values and jeers against activist judges. There was Rudy Giuliani, who, for some time, was seen as one of the most supportive Republican presidential candidates on LGBT issues, mocking Democratic nominee Barack Obama with an effeminate tone and gesture.
"Next time, try it a little gayer," quipped "Comedy Central" host Jon Stewart about Giuliani's performance.
But the undisputed star of the convention was not Republican presidential nominee John McCain but his surprise vice presidential pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Palin, a virtual unknown in national politics, delivered a Buchanan-style speech on Wednesday night that derided and mocked the Democratic nominee, and made clear the GOP was ready to stoop to any level in order to win the White House in November.
The Republican National Convention last week also relied heavily on the American people's inability to hear the concepts it co-opted from the previous week's Democratic speakers. Various Republicans speakers urged that the GOP wants "change" and that the Democrats just don't "get it."
But while the GOP was emphasizing its intention to hoist a social conservative flag over its march to the White House, it was setting into motion a madcap mixture of tactics – a nominee who is willing to be identified in his introductory convention video as a "mama's boy," the party's first-ever female vice presidential nominee, and the exploitation of an infant's illness and a teenager's very intimate tribulation.
And there was, very quietly, a willingness to seek the support of gay voters and independents who prefer a more politically moderate pitch.
Two top McCain campaign officials made brief remarks before events hosted by the Log Cabin Republicans, a national gay Republican group. Patrick Sammon, president of the group, said he has no doubt the two visited the group during the convention because they know the race with Democrat Barack Obama will be another very close contest. The latest polls, conducted Sept. 2 – 6, show the two nominees essentially tied.
"John McCain will lose this election unless he gets enough independent votes," said Sammon, explaining why he believes the McCain campaign was willing to send its national political director, Mike DuHaime, to speak at a Log Cabin event on Tuesday, and send senior advisor Steve Schmidt, to deliver its "respects" on Thursday.
DuHaime, "on behalf of Sen. McCain and the campaign," thanked an audience of about 200 for the Log Cabin endorsement. He added that both the campaign and a McCain administration would be "inclusive."
Schmidt, whom Sammon likened to Karl Rove, President Bush's chief strategist, paid his and the campaign's "respects" to Log Cabin, adding that the gay group was "an important one in the fabric of our Party."
"I admire your organization," said Schmidt. "Keep fighting for what you believe, because the day is going to come."
The Advocate reported – and http://www.youtube.com footage shows – that Schmidt also shared with the luncheon audience Thursday that he has a lesbian sister and that she and her partner are important to him and his family.
Sammon said the appearances of DuHaime and Schmidt indicate the party knows "it's going to need a lot more support, be more inclusive on lesbian and gay issues" in order to appeal to independent and gay voters.
Exit polls indicated that President Bush won 25 percent of the gay vote in 2000 and 23 percent in 2004, but a recent Harris poll suggested McCain might get as little as 10 percent. Sammon said that poll, based on the web responses of only 178 LGBT people, is not a reliable indicator of the gay vote.
"McCain will easily surpass Bush's vote," said Sammon. "He's a much more inclusive candidate." Sammon said he continues to hear anecdotal evidence that suggests many LGBT Democrats who initially supported Hillary Clinton might cross party lines to vote for McCain.
To cross, or not to cross
But the harshness of Palin's tone and that of other speakers at the convention did little to stake out a moderate tone and often, their remarks misrepresented well-known positions. For instance, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said that McCain "doesn't want to change the definition of marriage," implying, of course, that Obama does. In fact, Obama is opposed to same-sex marriage.
It was somewhat startling Thursday night, too, when a final video about McCain began airing and one of its first clips was from an interview with McCain's 96-year-old mother in which she summed up her son up as "a mama's boy." It is a term sometimes used to suggest a man is effeminate.
Meanwhile, reaction to the Log Cabin endorsement of the McCain-Palin ticket drew strong criticism from many quarters of the LGBT community. EQualityGiving.org, a Web site that provides financial and educational resources for pro-LGBT concerns, suggested Log Cabin misrepresented McCain's opposition to the Federal Marriage Amendment. It says McCain's opposition was based on his defense of states' rights and noted he actively supported a similar amendment proposed in Arizona in 2006.
The Human Rights Campaign responded to the endorsement by pointing out that the Republican Party "has declared in its platform that they want to pass the federal marriage amendment."
"Their party's platform also calls gay and lesbian Americans unfit for military service, supports policies that would allow faith-based organizations to deny us jobs and services using federal dollars and attacks judges who acknowledge our equality under the law," said HRC.
Sammon acknowledges that the GOP platform is "awful" but he says it's also irrelevant.
"The day after it passes, they put it in a drawer," said Sammon. "People vote for the candidate, not the platform. I'd rather have a candidate who votes against the Federal Marriage Amendment (as McCain did, twice) than a platform that's for it."
